A Kentucky State Police trooper is dismissed after the KSP trial board finds one of its own guilty of four violations of their standards of conduct.
The trial board convened yesterday afternoon in Franfort and found Sargeant Corey Buckner guilty on four violations.
Those include: honesty and conformance to law which were both class a violations, conformance to law, a Class B violation, and responsibility of ranking officers also a Class B violation.
The charges concerned misconduct involving certain Kentucky State Police Bowling Green post officer training records.
The trial board fixed Sgt. Buckner's punishment at dismissal for the two class a violations of the standards of conduct for which he was found guilty and at suspension for 20 days for each of the two Class B violations.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Officer Jamel Dennis Charged with Assault
The 12-lane thoroughfare is often called the Boulevard of Death, but for one short-fused police officer, the authorities say, it became a road of rage.
On the afternoon of Nov. 17, a civilian, Geoffrey Hollinden, 41, was crossing Queens Boulevard near 109th Street in Forest Hills when he was nearly hit by a car, the authorities say. Enraged, Mr. Hollinden pounded on the car, a 2006 Infiniti, as it passed.
Suddenly the car pulled over, and out sprang a large and irate man — identified by the authorities as Jamel Dennis, 32, an off-duty Brooklyn narcotics officer. Officer Dennis, who is 6-foot-6, grabbed Mr. Hollinden, the authorities say, dragged him to the boulevard’s service road, lifted him to shoulder height and slammed him to the ground, knocking him unconscious.
Mr. Hollinden was hospitalized for three days.
“As a motorist — and more so, as a police officer — the defendant should have known better than to allegedly take matters into his own hands and elevate a minor traffic dispute into a felonious assault,” the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Officer Dennis was charged on Monday night with second-degree assault and released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 15 and faces up to seven years in prison. Reached by telephone on Tuesday, he declined to comment. A man who identified himself as Officer Dennis’s father said, “They railroaded my son.”
It is not the first time that a New York police officer has been accused of road-rage assault. In August, two transit officers, Michelle Anglin, 37, and Koleen Robinson, 24, were charged with pummeling a man in the head and face with a baton and a gun after he pulled up alongside them in the Bronx with his side door open, nearly scraping their sport utility vehicle.
The Queens Boulevard episode provided yet more grist for the road’s dangerous reputation. The 8- to 12-lane street is one of the main arteries linking Queens to Manhattan; it also divides neighborhoods with a fast-moving river of traffic that some pedestrians find hard to cross.
Between 1993 and 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed along the road. Since 2004, safety improvements have led to a decrease in the number of collisions, but drivers and pedestrians still find the boulevard nerve-wracking, and accidents there still claim lives — two this year.
According to the district attorney, Officer Dennis fled after assaulting Mr. Hollinden. Two days later, Mr. Brown said, Officer Dennis went to the 112th Precinct station and identified himself as an officer in the Brooklyn North Narcotics Division. He said a man had pushed him during a traffic dispute in the area and asked whether anyone had filed a complaint. He also pointed out scuff marks on the back of his car to an officer from the Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which investigated the case.
District Attorney Brown said that the incident came to light because an eyewitness jotted down the license plate number of the defendant’s car. Mr. Hollinden sustained a cut in his head that required five staples, cranial bleeding and a herniated disc, according to the district attorney.
“The guy escaped the car, but not the driver,” said Kevin Ryan, the district attorney’s spokesman.
On the afternoon of Nov. 17, a civilian, Geoffrey Hollinden, 41, was crossing Queens Boulevard near 109th Street in Forest Hills when he was nearly hit by a car, the authorities say. Enraged, Mr. Hollinden pounded on the car, a 2006 Infiniti, as it passed.
Suddenly the car pulled over, and out sprang a large and irate man — identified by the authorities as Jamel Dennis, 32, an off-duty Brooklyn narcotics officer. Officer Dennis, who is 6-foot-6, grabbed Mr. Hollinden, the authorities say, dragged him to the boulevard’s service road, lifted him to shoulder height and slammed him to the ground, knocking him unconscious.
Mr. Hollinden was hospitalized for three days.
“As a motorist — and more so, as a police officer — the defendant should have known better than to allegedly take matters into his own hands and elevate a minor traffic dispute into a felonious assault,” the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Officer Dennis was charged on Monday night with second-degree assault and released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 15 and faces up to seven years in prison. Reached by telephone on Tuesday, he declined to comment. A man who identified himself as Officer Dennis’s father said, “They railroaded my son.”
It is not the first time that a New York police officer has been accused of road-rage assault. In August, two transit officers, Michelle Anglin, 37, and Koleen Robinson, 24, were charged with pummeling a man in the head and face with a baton and a gun after he pulled up alongside them in the Bronx with his side door open, nearly scraping their sport utility vehicle.
The Queens Boulevard episode provided yet more grist for the road’s dangerous reputation. The 8- to 12-lane street is one of the main arteries linking Queens to Manhattan; it also divides neighborhoods with a fast-moving river of traffic that some pedestrians find hard to cross.
Between 1993 and 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed along the road. Since 2004, safety improvements have led to a decrease in the number of collisions, but drivers and pedestrians still find the boulevard nerve-wracking, and accidents there still claim lives — two this year.
According to the district attorney, Officer Dennis fled after assaulting Mr. Hollinden. Two days later, Mr. Brown said, Officer Dennis went to the 112th Precinct station and identified himself as an officer in the Brooklyn North Narcotics Division. He said a man had pushed him during a traffic dispute in the area and asked whether anyone had filed a complaint. He also pointed out scuff marks on the back of his car to an officer from the Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which investigated the case.
District Attorney Brown said that the incident came to light because an eyewitness jotted down the license plate number of the defendant’s car. Mr. Hollinden sustained a cut in his head that required five staples, cranial bleeding and a herniated disc, according to the district attorney.
“The guy escaped the car, but not the driver,” said Kevin Ryan, the district attorney’s spokesman.
Alexis Chaparro Get's Only 10 Years for Murder
Outraged shouts echoed in a Riverhead courtroom Wednesday after a New York City Police Academy instructor pleaded guilty to killing his fiancee in a deal that will send him to prison for 10 years.
Alexis Chaparro, 28, had initially been charged with second-degree murder after police found Sonia Garcia, 27, also a New York Police Department officer, shot to death in the bedroom of their Bay Shore home last year. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 25 years to life in prison. Chaparro pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.
Members of Garcia's family reacted angrily to what they called a lenient sentence, some weeping audibly in court, others shaking their heads or clutching their hair. At one point, the victim's brother Ramon Hernandez, 32, shouted expletives and lunged at Chaparro until a scrum of family members and court officers hustled him out the door.
This came shortly after Chaparro admitted that after being roused from sleep on the fatal night, he pulled his service pistol from beneath his pillow and fired it.
"What did you fire it at?" Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson asked him.
"A shadow," Chaparro said.
Albertson then asked if he discovered that he'd just shot his fiancee.
"Yes," Chaparro murmured.
Outside court, Garcia's sister, Evelyn Hernandez, 26, of Park Slope, said Chaparro "basically got away with murder."
Hernandez said she now believes Chaparro killed Garcia because she discovered he was in the midst of a homosexual love affair.
"My sister walked in on him with another man," Hernandez said. "That's why she's dead."
But Albertson said police found no indication this was true. "After three months of investigation, there is no evidence to support that scenario," she said outside court.
Chaparro's lawyer, William Keahon of Islandia, declined to comment outside court. Keahon has consistently argued that his client only remembers falling asleep the night his fiancee was shot and killed, and that he had worried about burglars entering their home in the days leading up to her death.
Albertson called the plea deal the best the district attorney's office could do considering the shifting legal definition of the specific charge handed up by the grand jury, second-degree murder by depraved indifference.
Early in the case, the district attorney's office had presented two charges to the grand jury: intentional murder and depraved indifference murder. It indicted Chaparro only on the depraved indifference charge, accusing him of acting with such reckless disregard for human life that he merited the same blame as a person who'd acted intentionally.
It was a hard charge to prove given the facts of the case, Albertson said, and so "both sides gave up something to get something."
Alexis Chaparro, 28, had initially been charged with second-degree murder after police found Sonia Garcia, 27, also a New York Police Department officer, shot to death in the bedroom of their Bay Shore home last year. The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 25 years to life in prison. Chaparro pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.
Members of Garcia's family reacted angrily to what they called a lenient sentence, some weeping audibly in court, others shaking their heads or clutching their hair. At one point, the victim's brother Ramon Hernandez, 32, shouted expletives and lunged at Chaparro until a scrum of family members and court officers hustled him out the door.
This came shortly after Chaparro admitted that after being roused from sleep on the fatal night, he pulled his service pistol from beneath his pillow and fired it.
"What did you fire it at?" Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson asked him.
"A shadow," Chaparro said.
Albertson then asked if he discovered that he'd just shot his fiancee.
"Yes," Chaparro murmured.
Outside court, Garcia's sister, Evelyn Hernandez, 26, of Park Slope, said Chaparro "basically got away with murder."
Hernandez said she now believes Chaparro killed Garcia because she discovered he was in the midst of a homosexual love affair.
"My sister walked in on him with another man," Hernandez said. "That's why she's dead."
But Albertson said police found no indication this was true. "After three months of investigation, there is no evidence to support that scenario," she said outside court.
Chaparro's lawyer, William Keahon of Islandia, declined to comment outside court. Keahon has consistently argued that his client only remembers falling asleep the night his fiancee was shot and killed, and that he had worried about burglars entering their home in the days leading up to her death.
Albertson called the plea deal the best the district attorney's office could do considering the shifting legal definition of the specific charge handed up by the grand jury, second-degree murder by depraved indifference.
Early in the case, the district attorney's office had presented two charges to the grand jury: intentional murder and depraved indifference murder. It indicted Chaparro only on the depraved indifference charge, accusing him of acting with such reckless disregard for human life that he merited the same blame as a person who'd acted intentionally.
It was a hard charge to prove given the facts of the case, Albertson said, and so "both sides gave up something to get something."
Officer Ryan Warme Could Face Death Penalty for Raping 2 Women
A Niagara Falls police officer could face the death penalty if he's convicted of raping two women and violating their civil rights. Officer Ryan Warme entered a not guilty plea in U.S. District Court in downtown Buffalo Wednesday afternoon. He's charged with intentionally violating the civil rights of two women by sexually assaulting them, cocaine trafficking, and carrying a firearm in relation to one of the civil rights violations and the cocaine trafficking violation.
Authorities say the 27-year-old Warme, who joined the Niagara Falls police force in August 2005, committed many of his crimes while on duty. "I'd like to assure everyone, especially the citizens of Niagara Falls, that the actions of Mr. Ryan Warme were the actions of one individual and we have absolutely no facts to dispute that," says Niagara Falls Chief of Police John Chella.
Top officials in the NFPD were first tipped off to alleged misdeeds by Officer Warme a couple of years ago when a woman called to complain about him, but they say they didn't have enough evidence to pursue charges at the time. By July of this year though the complaints against Warme were piling up and Niagara Falls police enlisted the help of federal officers. Their investigation led to the arrest of Warme last night without incident at his Ninth Street home in the Falls.
"The one thing I really want to get out there is his actions may be shocking to the conscious of most people but I think what people need to take into consideration is the rest of the men and women of this department did not cover for him," says Det. Lt. Kelly Rizzo, NFPD.
The criminal complaint against Warme filed in U.S. District Court alleges Warme told one of the rape victims: "If she ever told anyone he would take her to the "res" (Indian reservation) and shoot her". He also allegedly told the victims his father was a police captain and no one would believe that he raped them. Gordon Warme was a decorated captain who served in the NFPD for many years and retired a few years ago. "In no way should the unacceptable behavior of Ryan Warme reflect on the fine career Captain Warme had," says Chief Chella, "I would hope that the public would not judge the father for the sins of the son."
Authorities think there could be other victims of Ryan Warme and they want victims to know it is safe to call Niagara Falls police and report a crime.
Watch the story
More Information: http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/512028.html
Sgt. Andy Cody Charged with Simple Assault
Weaverville Police Sergeant Andy Cody, 38, has resigned after he was charged with simple assault. Madison County deputies responded to a disturbance at his home around 4 am, Tuesday.
Officer Cody and Angela Tweed, 38, living together, unmarried at the residence, were involved in a domestic altercation. After Officer Cody’s release from jail, he obtained a domestic violence protection order against Tweed.
In a statement Cody stated that Tweed hit him in the head, face, and made threats of violence.
Officer Cody has been a Weaverville officer since 2002.
*************************
On 12/12/08 Officer Andy Cody,took his own life rather than face the allegations against him.
15 Officers Charged with Conspiracy and other Criminal Activities
CHICAGO
Duffel bags stuffed with cocaine were delivered by plane to an out-of-the-way suburban airport while two sheriff's officers provided security. A police officer stood by to guard the cash and keep out the riffraff at a poker game where $100,000 changed hands. And a drug dealer was told squad cars marked "sheriff" and "sheriff's police" might be available on a "freelance" basis to provide protection for his deliveries.
Such tales of law enforcement gone awry emerged in court papers Tuesday as federal prosecutors unveiled a series of elaborate sting operations aimed at officers who hired out to ride shotgun for drug deals and other criminal activities.
Fifteen officers and two other men who had pretended to be law enforcement officers were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine or heroin or both.
But the most spectacular pretending was done by the federal agents themselves.
The pilots of the airplane were not drug runners but undercover agents. So were the gamblers who busily played hand after hand of high-stakes poker — all for show.
The drug broker who squired the officers to the airport to pick up the duffel bags was an agent. So was the drug dealer who stuffed the bags into his Mercedes-Benz.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said he was dismayed to find that so many law enforcement officers had "sold out their badge."
"When drug dealers deal drugs, they ought to be afraid of the police — not turn to them for help," Fitzgerald said at a news conference.
Officials paid homage to an unnamed FBI agent who moved into a business in Harvey more than a year ago and set up shop as a drug broker. He soon attracted the attention of police and the corruption grew, authorities said.
They said the agent was sent in undercover because there had been reports of police corruption over the last several years in southern Cook County, including the Harvey police department. An investigation into allegations of robbery, extortion, narcotics offenses and weapons distribution is ongoing, officials said.
Those charged include 10 Cook County sheriff's correctional officers, four Harvey police officers and one Chicago police officer.
Of the 17 defendants, 14 were arrested or surrendered Tuesday and were being immediately brought before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason. Two sheriff's officers are on active duty with Army National Guard units in Afghanistan, and warrants were issued for their arrest.
If convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine or one kilogram of heroin, the defendants would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life. The maximum fine would be $4 million.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart called the alleged behavior "absolutely reprehensible."
"The responsibility of watching over jail inmates is an important one and it's a shame these men didn't take that responsibility more seriously," he said in a statement.
Each of those charged has been suspended with pay pending a hearing next week, Dart said. "That step will then lead to a request for termination," he said.
Duffel bags stuffed with cocaine were delivered by plane to an out-of-the-way suburban airport while two sheriff's officers provided security. A police officer stood by to guard the cash and keep out the riffraff at a poker game where $100,000 changed hands. And a drug dealer was told squad cars marked "sheriff" and "sheriff's police" might be available on a "freelance" basis to provide protection for his deliveries.
Such tales of law enforcement gone awry emerged in court papers Tuesday as federal prosecutors unveiled a series of elaborate sting operations aimed at officers who hired out to ride shotgun for drug deals and other criminal activities.
Fifteen officers and two other men who had pretended to be law enforcement officers were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine or heroin or both.
But the most spectacular pretending was done by the federal agents themselves.
The pilots of the airplane were not drug runners but undercover agents. So were the gamblers who busily played hand after hand of high-stakes poker — all for show.
The drug broker who squired the officers to the airport to pick up the duffel bags was an agent. So was the drug dealer who stuffed the bags into his Mercedes-Benz.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said he was dismayed to find that so many law enforcement officers had "sold out their badge."
"When drug dealers deal drugs, they ought to be afraid of the police — not turn to them for help," Fitzgerald said at a news conference.
Officials paid homage to an unnamed FBI agent who moved into a business in Harvey more than a year ago and set up shop as a drug broker. He soon attracted the attention of police and the corruption grew, authorities said.
They said the agent was sent in undercover because there had been reports of police corruption over the last several years in southern Cook County, including the Harvey police department. An investigation into allegations of robbery, extortion, narcotics offenses and weapons distribution is ongoing, officials said.
Those charged include 10 Cook County sheriff's correctional officers, four Harvey police officers and one Chicago police officer.
Of the 17 defendants, 14 were arrested or surrendered Tuesday and were being immediately brought before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason. Two sheriff's officers are on active duty with Army National Guard units in Afghanistan, and warrants were issued for their arrest.
If convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine or one kilogram of heroin, the defendants would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life. The maximum fine would be $4 million.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart called the alleged behavior "absolutely reprehensible."
"The responsibility of watching over jail inmates is an important one and it's a shame these men didn't take that responsibility more seriously," he said in a statement.
Each of those charged has been suspended with pay pending a hearing next week, Dart said. "That step will then lead to a request for termination," he said.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
911 Dispatcher Melissa Sharkey Arrested for Grand Theft
A 911 dispatch supervisor was arrested for grand theft after investigators determined she falsified her time sheets over the course of about a year to receive $1,872 more pay than she should have.
Melissa Leigh Sharkey of Jacksonville was arrested Monday, two weeks after an internal investigation into her time records was complete.
"During the investigation, ... Sharkey's signed time sheets were reviewed and compared against her actual computer-generated log in and log out times for the last year," said Nassau County Sheriff Tommy Seagraves. "Upon careful review of these documents, it revealed 42 discrepancies from Sept. 11, 2007 through Nov. 1, 2008."
Seagraves said most of the discrepancies caused Sharkey to get overtime pay she was not entitled to.
"When tabulating the monetary value received, through the fraudulently obtained hours, it was revealed that the amount totaled $1,872.11," Seagraves said.
The results of the Nassau County Sheriff's Office internal investigation were given to the State Attorney's Office and a warrant for Sharkey's arrest was issued on the charge of grand theft.
Sharkey has been released from jail on $2,002 bond.
Melissa Leigh Sharkey of Jacksonville was arrested Monday, two weeks after an internal investigation into her time records was complete.
"During the investigation, ... Sharkey's signed time sheets were reviewed and compared against her actual computer-generated log in and log out times for the last year," said Nassau County Sheriff Tommy Seagraves. "Upon careful review of these documents, it revealed 42 discrepancies from Sept. 11, 2007 through Nov. 1, 2008."
Seagraves said most of the discrepancies caused Sharkey to get overtime pay she was not entitled to.
"When tabulating the monetary value received, through the fraudulently obtained hours, it was revealed that the amount totaled $1,872.11," Seagraves said.
The results of the Nassau County Sheriff's Office internal investigation were given to the State Attorney's Office and a warrant for Sharkey's arrest was issued on the charge of grand theft.
Sharkey has been released from jail on $2,002 bond.
Former Officer Michael Johnson Charged with Raping Woman
The president of a York County township's board of commissioners — a former police officer and Army veteran — was arrested after a two-hour standoff at his home Monday and charged with raping a woman in Baltimore last month, police said.
Michael L. Johnson Jr., 40, of Hanover in southwestern York County, Pa., is accused of posing as a police officer and picking up a 21-year-old woman in the Baltimore Highlands area of Southeast Baltimore on Nov. 2.
He allegedly told her he was arresting her for prostitution as part of a sting operation and handcuffed her to the back seat of his minivan, which had its windows covered with sheets. Police allege in charging documents that he then drove her to an industrial area in the rear of the 4400 block of E. Monument St. and offered to let her go if she had sex with him.
"She said that she thought he was a police officer, so she complied with his demands," said Agent Donny Moses, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department.
Police said that after the assault, Johnson drove the woman around, offering to pay her and provide her help in her personal life, then pushed her out of the vehicle behind Sherrie's Show Bar and Lounge, a strip club in the 3700 block of Pulaski Highway.
The victim, who told police that she had been buying heroin when Johnson picked her up, gave investigators a license plate number and a description of the silver van, including a sticker on the back windshield that read "Fort Benning." She later identified him in a photo lineup, according to records.
A law enforcement source said the van did not belong to Johnson but had been loaned to him by a family friend of he and his wife.
Members of Baltimore's Warrant Apprehension Task Force, along with Pennsylvania State Police, arrested Johnson at his home in Hanover, Pa., after a two-hour standoff, Moses said. He was taken to the York County Prison, where he was being held on $100,000 bond on a fugitive warrant pending a hearing on his extradition to Baltimore on charges of first-degree rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Johnson, a Republican, finished last among four candidates against Rep. Todd R. Platts in 2002, and he was described in news reports as a former champion kick boxer and Army infantryman. He worked for the York Police Department for four years and was a small-business owner. He has two young children.
He retired from the York Police Department in 1999 after his wrist was slashed during an arrest, according to a report in the Hanover Evening Sun. He was on disability and unable to use his right arm for almost two years but in 2002 told the newspaper that he had recovered and was looking to get back into police work.
Johnson was elected to the board of commissioners in Penn Township, a community of about 15,000 people, in 2000. In January, he became president of the board, and he also chairs the Public Safety Committee. As township commissioner, Johnson's duties include overseeing the local police department.
More Information: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUtusppZVRCkKFkQo_DLd2gPC_5wD94QU2500
Officer Alberto Perez Arrested for Extortion
AVON PARK
Alberto Perez, 33, who has been an officer with the Avon Park Police Department since July 2007, has been arrested for extortion.
The Tuesday evening arrest comes on the heels of a lengthy investigation of complaints about police misconduct.
It started in June 2008 in reference to complaints that APPD officers were stealing from citizens, namely those of a Hispanic background.
The first arrest was of Adam Willis, 31, on Nov. 19.
An undercover operation with a vehicle made to look like it was abandoned on the side of the road allegedly caught Willis stealing money from the car and not making any attempts to locate the owner.
When he was arrested, he still had $40 of the marked bills in his pocket, arrest reports said.
Since Willis's arrest, Perez was put on paid administrative leave.
The two officers worked the same shift, and were commended for their actions early in November at an Avon Park City Council meeting for thwarting an alleged robbery in progress.
The two men noticed the suspicious activity behind All Star Video along the 1500 block of U.S. 27 and their efforts resulted in the arrest of three suspects.
At this time any other affiliations between the two men are unknown.
According to Patrica Austin with the Avon Park chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, she fielded complaints of extortion that made her "furious."
They included citizens paying the officers between $200 and $300 to avoid being written a ticket.
Officials from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which organized the Willis investigation and undercover operation, would not comment on the allegations of money for tickets.
More Information: http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2008/dec/03/Second_AP_Police_Officer_Arrested/
Alberto Perez, 33, who has been an officer with the Avon Park Police Department since July 2007, has been arrested for extortion.
The Tuesday evening arrest comes on the heels of a lengthy investigation of complaints about police misconduct.
It started in June 2008 in reference to complaints that APPD officers were stealing from citizens, namely those of a Hispanic background.
The first arrest was of Adam Willis, 31, on Nov. 19.
An undercover operation with a vehicle made to look like it was abandoned on the side of the road allegedly caught Willis stealing money from the car and not making any attempts to locate the owner.
When he was arrested, he still had $40 of the marked bills in his pocket, arrest reports said.
Since Willis's arrest, Perez was put on paid administrative leave.
The two officers worked the same shift, and were commended for their actions early in November at an Avon Park City Council meeting for thwarting an alleged robbery in progress.
The two men noticed the suspicious activity behind All Star Video along the 1500 block of U.S. 27 and their efforts resulted in the arrest of three suspects.
At this time any other affiliations between the two men are unknown.
According to Patrica Austin with the Avon Park chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, she fielded complaints of extortion that made her "furious."
They included citizens paying the officers between $200 and $300 to avoid being written a ticket.
Officials from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which organized the Willis investigation and undercover operation, would not comment on the allegations of money for tickets.
More Information: http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2008/dec/03/Second_AP_Police_Officer_Arrested/
Officer Lisa Staples Arrested for DUI
Lisa Staples was arrested early Sunday morning for DUI after she was caught driving on the wrong side of the road on Interstate 72.
The police chief says she's been with the department more than a decade and never had any problems like this. Police received calls before 3 a.m. Sunday to report a car driving on the wrong side of interstate 72.
State police arrested 39 year old Lisa Staples near the Mahomet exit after they realized she was under the influence of alcohol. Staples was not carrying her drivers license.
"It's a regrettable incident we wish wouldn't have been made. She will be going through criminal investigations with Illinois State Police, as well as an internal investigation. She could face anything up to termination," said Champaign Police Chief R.T. Finney.
A special prosecutor will handle the case because of Staples' close relationship with county officials. She will be back in court December 19th.
The police chief says she's been with the department more than a decade and never had any problems like this. Police received calls before 3 a.m. Sunday to report a car driving on the wrong side of interstate 72.
State police arrested 39 year old Lisa Staples near the Mahomet exit after they realized she was under the influence of alcohol. Staples was not carrying her drivers license.
"It's a regrettable incident we wish wouldn't have been made. She will be going through criminal investigations with Illinois State Police, as well as an internal investigation. She could face anything up to termination," said Champaign Police Chief R.T. Finney.
A special prosecutor will handle the case because of Staples' close relationship with county officials. She will be back in court December 19th.
Officer Allen Wallace Back on the Job After Sexual Assault
GREENSBORO
Allen Wallace, the police sergeant suspended last December after being accused of participating in a sexual assault on another officer, has been reinstated but at a lower rank.
The police department notified Wallace on Monday he would be returning to work, said Bill Hill, the Greensboro Police Officers Association attorney who represented Wallace at his departmental hearing.
Wallace will be demoted from sergeant to senior police officer, and will return to work today, according to the city.
"He looks forward to serving the people of Greensboro as he has done for almost 20 years," Hill said.
Wallace is the last accused officer to have outstanding issues in the case that is almost a year old.
Wallace, officer J.O. LeGrand and officer C.S. Stevens were all investigated for their involvement in the December incident but were not charged with any crime.
In July, police Chief Tim Bellamy recommended terminating Wallace and LeGrand as a result of an internal investigation by the police department's professional standards division.
Both appealed the decision and requested a hearing. Wallace's hearing was held last week, Hill said.
LeGrand resigned from the police department in September to take a job with the Rockingham Police Department.
Stevens was disciplined and returned to duty in July. City and police officials declined to comment on Stevens' discipline, citing personnel privacy laws.
When an officer faces termination, he or she is allowed a hearing before a six-member general board of inquiry, The police chief is chairman.
The decision of the police chief after the hearing is binding.
If an officer is not satisfied with the decision, it can be appealed to the city manager.
The three officers were put on paid administrative leave Dec. 18 when the department announced a criminal and administrative investigation into a sexual assault reported by a female police officer. The female officer said she was sexually assaulted while in a vehicle with the three men the previous weekend.
Wallace and LeGrand were suspended - without pay - after their termination was recommended in July.
The three suspended officers were members of the department's tactical special enforcement team last December, when the assault was reported. The team then worked on suppressing street-level drug sales. Now that function is performed by a tactical narcotics team in the vice/narcotics division.
Wallace was transferred to the central patrol bureau in October. Stevens also now works in the central patrol bureau.
Allen Wallace, the police sergeant suspended last December after being accused of participating in a sexual assault on another officer, has been reinstated but at a lower rank.
The police department notified Wallace on Monday he would be returning to work, said Bill Hill, the Greensboro Police Officers Association attorney who represented Wallace at his departmental hearing.
Wallace will be demoted from sergeant to senior police officer, and will return to work today, according to the city.
"He looks forward to serving the people of Greensboro as he has done for almost 20 years," Hill said.
Wallace is the last accused officer to have outstanding issues in the case that is almost a year old.
Wallace, officer J.O. LeGrand and officer C.S. Stevens were all investigated for their involvement in the December incident but were not charged with any crime.
In July, police Chief Tim Bellamy recommended terminating Wallace and LeGrand as a result of an internal investigation by the police department's professional standards division.
Both appealed the decision and requested a hearing. Wallace's hearing was held last week, Hill said.
LeGrand resigned from the police department in September to take a job with the Rockingham Police Department.
Stevens was disciplined and returned to duty in July. City and police officials declined to comment on Stevens' discipline, citing personnel privacy laws.
When an officer faces termination, he or she is allowed a hearing before a six-member general board of inquiry, The police chief is chairman.
The decision of the police chief after the hearing is binding.
If an officer is not satisfied with the decision, it can be appealed to the city manager.
The three officers were put on paid administrative leave Dec. 18 when the department announced a criminal and administrative investigation into a sexual assault reported by a female police officer. The female officer said she was sexually assaulted while in a vehicle with the three men the previous weekend.
Wallace and LeGrand were suspended - without pay - after their termination was recommended in July.
The three suspended officers were members of the department's tactical special enforcement team last December, when the assault was reported. The team then worked on suppressing street-level drug sales. Now that function is performed by a tactical narcotics team in the vice/narcotics division.
Wallace was transferred to the central patrol bureau in October. Stevens also now works in the central patrol bureau.
Lt. Michael O'Hanley Investigated for Threatening Daughter-in-Law
GLOUCESTER, Mass.
City officials are investigating a questionable phone call made by one of their own officers.
Lieutenant Michael O'Hanley, a veteran officer of the Gloucester Police Department, allegedly was overheard on his cell phone making a threat against his daughter-in-law.
The call was accidentally transmitted over the officer's police radio while he was on duty.
"She's an [expletive]...and when this is all over, I will call her and have several words with her and tell her exactly what I think of her," O'Hanley was overheard saying.
At one point the veteran officer is heard making what sounds like a threat.
"I'm going to hire Bobby Mason to go over there and bust all the windows," O'Hanley said.
An outside law enforcement group has launched an investigation and the department promises that swift disciplinary action will be taken if necessary.
"This was an emotional time during a personal situation in an officer's family," a spokesman for the department said.
O'Hanley is reportedly on vacation.
More Information: http://wbztv.com/local/gloucester.cop.threat.2.878198.html
Officer Jamel Dennis Charged with Beating Pedestrian
QUEENS
A New York City police officer has been charged with beating a pedestrian.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that moments before the alleged assault, the officer almost struck the victim with his car as the man was crossing Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills.
The officer was off-duty at the time of the alleged incident, which occurred two weeks ago.
The officer was identified as Jamel Dennis, 32, of Queens. Dennis, who is assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn North Narcotics District, was arraigned Tuesday night in Queens Criminal Court on a charge of second-degree assault, a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Dennis was released on his own recognizance and ordered to return to court on January 15, 2009.
Investigators said Dennis was driving along Queens Boulevard on the afternoon of November 17, when he almost struck Geoffrey Hollinden, 41, who was crossing near 109th Street.
Hollinden allegedly hit the rear of the defendant's 2006 Infiniti as it passed him, according to Brown. At that point, Dennis is accused of getting out of his car and attacking Hollinden, allegedly slamming him to the pavement and knocking him out.
Hollinden sustained a laceration to the head that required five staples, as well as cranial bleeding, a herniated disc in the neck and substantial pain that caused him to be hospitalized at a local Queens hospital for three days.
Prosecutors said Dennis appeared at the NYPD's 112th Precinct a couple of days after the incident, where he identified himself as an officer assigned to the Brooklyn North Narcotics District. He allegedly stated that he had been involved in a traffic dispute with another man who had pushed him and wanted to know if anyone had come in to file a complaint in connection with the incident.
That same day, Dennis allegedly pointed out a scuff mark on the rear of his Infiniti to an officer assigned to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and stated that was where the other man had hit the back of his car.
The case came to light when an eyewitness, who observed the alleged incident, jotted down the license plate of the defendant's car, Brown said.
A New York City police officer has been charged with beating a pedestrian.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that moments before the alleged assault, the officer almost struck the victim with his car as the man was crossing Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills.
The officer was off-duty at the time of the alleged incident, which occurred two weeks ago.
The officer was identified as Jamel Dennis, 32, of Queens. Dennis, who is assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn North Narcotics District, was arraigned Tuesday night in Queens Criminal Court on a charge of second-degree assault, a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Dennis was released on his own recognizance and ordered to return to court on January 15, 2009.
Investigators said Dennis was driving along Queens Boulevard on the afternoon of November 17, when he almost struck Geoffrey Hollinden, 41, who was crossing near 109th Street.
Hollinden allegedly hit the rear of the defendant's 2006 Infiniti as it passed him, according to Brown. At that point, Dennis is accused of getting out of his car and attacking Hollinden, allegedly slamming him to the pavement and knocking him out.
Hollinden sustained a laceration to the head that required five staples, as well as cranial bleeding, a herniated disc in the neck and substantial pain that caused him to be hospitalized at a local Queens hospital for three days.
Prosecutors said Dennis appeared at the NYPD's 112th Precinct a couple of days after the incident, where he identified himself as an officer assigned to the Brooklyn North Narcotics District. He allegedly stated that he had been involved in a traffic dispute with another man who had pushed him and wanted to know if anyone had come in to file a complaint in connection with the incident.
That same day, Dennis allegedly pointed out a scuff mark on the rear of his Infiniti to an officer assigned to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and stated that was where the other man had hit the back of his car.
The case came to light when an eyewitness, who observed the alleged incident, jotted down the license plate of the defendant's car, Brown said.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Officer Melody Pierce on Paid Leave After Shooting Ex-Boyfriend
JACKSON, Tenn.
A Humboldt police officer is on paid administrative leave after police say she shot her ex-boyfriend with a department-issued handgun.
Humboldt Police Chief Raymond Simmons says 31-year-old Melody Pierce told Milan police she shot 26-year-old Robert Kendall in the hip outside her Milan home Saturday.
Humboldt police officer Hunter Stewart was also involved in the incident and was back at work Monday.
Milan police Commander Bobby Sellers says the incident is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.
Kendall was taken to an area hospital and his condition is unknown.
A Humboldt police officer is on paid administrative leave after police say she shot her ex-boyfriend with a department-issued handgun.
Humboldt Police Chief Raymond Simmons says 31-year-old Melody Pierce told Milan police she shot 26-year-old Robert Kendall in the hip outside her Milan home Saturday.
Humboldt police officer Hunter Stewart was also involved in the incident and was back at work Monday.
Milan police Commander Bobby Sellers says the incident is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.
Kendall was taken to an area hospital and his condition is unknown.
Several Officers Charged with Providing Protection for Drug Dealers
Four Harvey police officers, 10 Cook County jail guards and a Chicago police officer have been charged with providing muscle for what they thought were major drug deals - but were really fake transactions that were part of an FBI sting.
In one of the largest crackdowns on law enforcement officers in recent years, the FBI is accusing the officers of accepting between $400 and $4,000 each on one or more occasions to serve as lookouts and intervene if police or rival drug dealers attempted to interfere with shipments of cocaine and heroin.
In May, for instance, jail guards Ahyetoro Taylor and Raphael Manuel accompanied someone they thought brokered large-scale drug transactions but was really an undercover FBI agent.
A twin-propeller plane landed at the west suburban DuPage Airport, where they boarded and began counting what they thought was 80 kilograms of cocaine stashed in four duffel bags, according to federal authorities.
They allegedly took the bags to the undercover FBI agent's car and watched as another undercover agent pulled up in a Mercedes, took the bags and drove off.
Taylor and Manuel took $4,000 each, authorities said.
Harvey officer Archie Stallworth is accused of accompanying an undercover agent to the DuPage Airport on Aug. 11 and accepting $1,000 after handling three duffel bags purportedly containing 30 kilograms of cocaine.
Stallworth, in an earlier conversation with an agent, allegedly talked about the best way to exchange drugs without arousing suspicion.
"The best spot for ya'll to do that, believe it or not, is the train station," he said. "Fast food places, that's where we be looking."
The undercover FBI agent was allegedly posing as an employee of a strip club in Harvey, sources said.
Stallworth denied comment today.
The FBI orchestrated 12 fake drug transactions between Aug. 1, 2007 and Aug. 11.
Last year, Manuel allegedly told an undercover FBI agent that he could intercede with local police if necessary.
"We know how to politic with the local authorities in case they try to stick their noses in that stuff like that," he was recorded as saying.
In another staged deal, Harvey officers Dwayne Williams and Antoine Dudley each took $400 to provide security for the undercover FBI agent, authorities said.
Williams allegedly got $400 to provide muscle during a purported $100,000 poker game staged by FBI agents, and Dudley got $400 to escort the agent to a local business.
They allegedly teamed up with fellow Harvey police officer James Engram Jr. to provide protection for a fake 25 kilogram cocaine deal on Feb. 29.
Chicago Police Officer Kyle T. Wilson also was charged in the sting. He allegedly accepted $500 for working security on a staged deal on Oct. 24, 2007.
In one of the largest crackdowns on law enforcement officers in recent years, the FBI is accusing the officers of accepting between $400 and $4,000 each on one or more occasions to serve as lookouts and intervene if police or rival drug dealers attempted to interfere with shipments of cocaine and heroin.
In May, for instance, jail guards Ahyetoro Taylor and Raphael Manuel accompanied someone they thought brokered large-scale drug transactions but was really an undercover FBI agent.
A twin-propeller plane landed at the west suburban DuPage Airport, where they boarded and began counting what they thought was 80 kilograms of cocaine stashed in four duffel bags, according to federal authorities.
They allegedly took the bags to the undercover FBI agent's car and watched as another undercover agent pulled up in a Mercedes, took the bags and drove off.
Taylor and Manuel took $4,000 each, authorities said.
Harvey officer Archie Stallworth is accused of accompanying an undercover agent to the DuPage Airport on Aug. 11 and accepting $1,000 after handling three duffel bags purportedly containing 30 kilograms of cocaine.
Stallworth, in an earlier conversation with an agent, allegedly talked about the best way to exchange drugs without arousing suspicion.
"The best spot for ya'll to do that, believe it or not, is the train station," he said. "Fast food places, that's where we be looking."
The undercover FBI agent was allegedly posing as an employee of a strip club in Harvey, sources said.
Stallworth denied comment today.
The FBI orchestrated 12 fake drug transactions between Aug. 1, 2007 and Aug. 11.
Last year, Manuel allegedly told an undercover FBI agent that he could intercede with local police if necessary.
"We know how to politic with the local authorities in case they try to stick their noses in that stuff like that," he was recorded as saying.
In another staged deal, Harvey officers Dwayne Williams and Antoine Dudley each took $400 to provide security for the undercover FBI agent, authorities said.
Williams allegedly got $400 to provide muscle during a purported $100,000 poker game staged by FBI agents, and Dudley got $400 to escort the agent to a local business.
They allegedly teamed up with fellow Harvey police officer James Engram Jr. to provide protection for a fake 25 kilogram cocaine deal on Feb. 29.
Chicago Police Officer Kyle T. Wilson also was charged in the sting. He allegedly accepted $500 for working security on a staged deal on Oct. 24, 2007.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Veteran Officer Richard Brown Jr Charged with Theft
A veteran Plainfield police officer was charged today with one count of third-degree theft after he allegedly stole several thousand dollars from the local Policeman's Benevolent Association, Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said.
Richard D. Brown, Jr., 52, served as an officer for the local PBA for 25 years, the last year as treasurer. An investigation revealed that between June 11, 2008 and Nov. 12, 2008 Brown wrote checks to himself from the PBA account and "treated the funds as his own," said Romankow.
During an audit last month other members of the PBA noticed financial discrepancies and reported their findings to the prosecutor's office.
Brown has been suspended from the department and is scheduled to make his first appearance before Union County Superior Court Judge Joan Robinson Gross on Dec. 12.
"It's sad when greed outweighs the badge," said Assistant Union County Prosecutor William Kolano. Brown allegedly stole $4,000 to $6,000 from the PBA fund, Kolano said.
Richard D. Brown, Jr., 52, served as an officer for the local PBA for 25 years, the last year as treasurer. An investigation revealed that between June 11, 2008 and Nov. 12, 2008 Brown wrote checks to himself from the PBA account and "treated the funds as his own," said Romankow.
During an audit last month other members of the PBA noticed financial discrepancies and reported their findings to the prosecutor's office.
Brown has been suspended from the department and is scheduled to make his first appearance before Union County Superior Court Judge Joan Robinson Gross on Dec. 12.
"It's sad when greed outweighs the badge," said Assistant Union County Prosecutor William Kolano. Brown allegedly stole $4,000 to $6,000 from the PBA fund, Kolano said.
Drew Peterson's Son Suspended for Improperly Using Police Data
Oak Brook police officer Steve Peterson, son of former Bolingbrook officer Drew Peterson, has been suspended for improperly using police data, officials said Friday.
He was suspended for 25 days without pay for use of police databases for personal reasons, Assistant Village Manager Blaine Wing said.
Drew Peterson drew national attention when his wife Stacy disappeared. He has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.
He was suspended for 25 days without pay for use of police databases for personal reasons, Assistant Village Manager Blaine Wing said.
Drew Peterson drew national attention when his wife Stacy disappeared. He has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Officer Dennis O'Connell Facing Federal Lawsuit for Police Brutality
NEW HAVEN
A New Haven police officer is facing two federal lawsuits accusing him of brutality and an illegal strip search, while records show he has been subject to a history of complaints of excessive force.
Union officials call Officer Dennis O'Connell "a good cop" who works in tough, violent neighborhoods. But the coordinator for the department's Civilian Review Board said complaints against O'Connell are high.
"One person with eight complaints of the same type could be perceived as excessive," said Reginald Thomas, coordinator of the Civilian Review Board. "It's not the average for a New Haven police officer."
A telephone message was left for O'Connell with Sergeant Louis G. Cavaliere, president of the police union, who said O'Connell declined to comment. O'Connell has been on the force for about a decade and makes about $59,000 per year.
"This is not Mayberry USA or Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," Cavaliere said. "You're dealing with the scum of the earth when you're dealing with people with drugs and guns."
The department has a recent history of scandal. Three detectives were sent to prison for planting evidence and stealing money from crime scenes.
An independent review of the department found problems with investigations of complaints against police. Many cases were closed because those who filed the complaints did not pursue them, according to the report last year by the Police Executive Research Forum, a national group that evaluates police operations.
In one of the lawsuits, five men and a woman say O'Connell used excessive force. One man said he was repeatedly punched in the face and sprayed with chemicals while he was handcuffed, while another said he was beaten unconscious.
Dramese Fair, who is black, also filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year accusing O'Connell and two other officers of subjecting him to an illegal strip search last year.
Eight other residents have filed complaints in recent years accusing O'Connell of excessive force and other misconduct, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.
Attorney Paul Garlinghouse, attorney for the six plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit, said his clients filed complaints with police, but no action was taken. His lawsuit seeks $9.5 million in damages.
None of the eight complaints resulted in any disciplinary action against O'Connell. Internal affairs investigators said the alleged victims did not pursue their complaints or they were unfounded or, in one case, missed a deadline for filing.
Police reports on the incidents contradict versions by the complainants. One of the complainants pushed O'Connell and threw a punch at him, and O'Connell said another man burned him with a cigarette, according to police reports.
Valerie Myles, who alleged that officers beat her and her cousin, said she did try to pursue her complaint but "evidently it disappeared." A police report charging her cousin with drug violations was filled out by Detective Justen Kasperzyk, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for planting drug evidence and stealing money from a crime scene.
"They are hot to stamp 'not pursued' on these cases," Garlinghouse said.
Fair's lawsuit accuses the city of postponing a hearing to avoid scrutiny of illegal searches and refusing to act on disciplinary complaints against the officers.
City officials said they could not comment on pending litigation. They also declined to comment on complaints that have been closed.
A New Haven police officer is facing two federal lawsuits accusing him of brutality and an illegal strip search, while records show he has been subject to a history of complaints of excessive force.
Union officials call Officer Dennis O'Connell "a good cop" who works in tough, violent neighborhoods. But the coordinator for the department's Civilian Review Board said complaints against O'Connell are high.
"One person with eight complaints of the same type could be perceived as excessive," said Reginald Thomas, coordinator of the Civilian Review Board. "It's not the average for a New Haven police officer."
A telephone message was left for O'Connell with Sergeant Louis G. Cavaliere, president of the police union, who said O'Connell declined to comment. O'Connell has been on the force for about a decade and makes about $59,000 per year.
"This is not Mayberry USA or Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," Cavaliere said. "You're dealing with the scum of the earth when you're dealing with people with drugs and guns."
The department has a recent history of scandal. Three detectives were sent to prison for planting evidence and stealing money from crime scenes.
An independent review of the department found problems with investigations of complaints against police. Many cases were closed because those who filed the complaints did not pursue them, according to the report last year by the Police Executive Research Forum, a national group that evaluates police operations.
In one of the lawsuits, five men and a woman say O'Connell used excessive force. One man said he was repeatedly punched in the face and sprayed with chemicals while he was handcuffed, while another said he was beaten unconscious.
Dramese Fair, who is black, also filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year accusing O'Connell and two other officers of subjecting him to an illegal strip search last year.
Eight other residents have filed complaints in recent years accusing O'Connell of excessive force and other misconduct, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.
Attorney Paul Garlinghouse, attorney for the six plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit, said his clients filed complaints with police, but no action was taken. His lawsuit seeks $9.5 million in damages.
None of the eight complaints resulted in any disciplinary action against O'Connell. Internal affairs investigators said the alleged victims did not pursue their complaints or they were unfounded or, in one case, missed a deadline for filing.
Police reports on the incidents contradict versions by the complainants. One of the complainants pushed O'Connell and threw a punch at him, and O'Connell said another man burned him with a cigarette, according to police reports.
Valerie Myles, who alleged that officers beat her and her cousin, said she did try to pursue her complaint but "evidently it disappeared." A police report charging her cousin with drug violations was filled out by Detective Justen Kasperzyk, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for planting drug evidence and stealing money from a crime scene.
"They are hot to stamp 'not pursued' on these cases," Garlinghouse said.
Fair's lawsuit accuses the city of postponing a hearing to avoid scrutiny of illegal searches and refusing to act on disciplinary complaints against the officers.
City officials said they could not comment on pending litigation. They also declined to comment on complaints that have been closed.
Former Officer Gregory Graham Captured After 2-hour Suicide Stand-off
Panama City, Florida
Gregory Allen Graham, a 34-year-old police officer who became a fugitive after his arrest on child molestation and incest charges was captured Saturday after a two hour suicide stand-off with Panama City authorities.
Graham, a former Fulton County, Georgia police officer was originally arrested on April 4 on two counts of child molestation, four counts of incest, one count of statutory rape, possession of anabolic steroids and attempt to suborn perjury.
Coweta County authorities say Graham allegedly engaged in an ongoing sexual relationship with an under-aged female relative. Authorities also say they found Graham in possession of anabolic steroids and that he repeatedly attempted to influence witnesses in the case. Police first became aware of the alleged activity when the victim's mother reported it to authorities and the victim reportedly confirmed the allegations.
Graham was released on a $50,000 bond while awaiting trial. Court records indicate Graham failed to appear for a Coweta Superior Court hearing on Monday. When Graham failed to appear again on Wednesday, he was declared a fugitive and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
When authorities received word that he might be in Florida, Bay County, Florida sheriff's deputies tracked Graham down to a motel he was staying at along Thomas Dr. in Panama City. Deputies raided the motel room and found Graham's firearms, ammunition and truck, but Graham was not in the room.
Authorities began an intense search of the area for several days that included K-9 units and an air unit who finally discovered Graham lying in a nearby wooded marsh at about 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. As officers closed in, they discovered Graham had cut his wrists and was holding a hunting knife to his throat. Bay County Hostage Negotiators were called in, who spent approximately two hours talking to Graham before he finally released the knife and surrendered to authorities at about 4:00 a.m..
Authorities revealed they were able to narrow down Graham's wherabouts by tracking a signal from his cell phone.
“We are extremely proud of the extraordinary effort Investigator Jason Fetner and Investigator Matt Kee did in tracking this guy since Wednesday,” said Assistant District Attorney Kevin McMurry. “They worked relentlessly their entire Thanksgiving to apprehend him.”
Graham now sits in the Bay County Jail while he awaits extradition back to Georgia.
Gregory Allen Graham, a 34-year-old police officer who became a fugitive after his arrest on child molestation and incest charges was captured Saturday after a two hour suicide stand-off with Panama City authorities.
Graham, a former Fulton County, Georgia police officer was originally arrested on April 4 on two counts of child molestation, four counts of incest, one count of statutory rape, possession of anabolic steroids and attempt to suborn perjury.
Coweta County authorities say Graham allegedly engaged in an ongoing sexual relationship with an under-aged female relative. Authorities also say they found Graham in possession of anabolic steroids and that he repeatedly attempted to influence witnesses in the case. Police first became aware of the alleged activity when the victim's mother reported it to authorities and the victim reportedly confirmed the allegations.
Graham was released on a $50,000 bond while awaiting trial. Court records indicate Graham failed to appear for a Coweta Superior Court hearing on Monday. When Graham failed to appear again on Wednesday, he was declared a fugitive and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
When authorities received word that he might be in Florida, Bay County, Florida sheriff's deputies tracked Graham down to a motel he was staying at along Thomas Dr. in Panama City. Deputies raided the motel room and found Graham's firearms, ammunition and truck, but Graham was not in the room.
Authorities began an intense search of the area for several days that included K-9 units and an air unit who finally discovered Graham lying in a nearby wooded marsh at about 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. As officers closed in, they discovered Graham had cut his wrists and was holding a hunting knife to his throat. Bay County Hostage Negotiators were called in, who spent approximately two hours talking to Graham before he finally released the knife and surrendered to authorities at about 4:00 a.m..
Authorities revealed they were able to narrow down Graham's wherabouts by tracking a signal from his cell phone.
“We are extremely proud of the extraordinary effort Investigator Jason Fetner and Investigator Matt Kee did in tracking this guy since Wednesday,” said Assistant District Attorney Kevin McMurry. “They worked relentlessly their entire Thanksgiving to apprehend him.”
Graham now sits in the Bay County Jail while he awaits extradition back to Georgia.
Officer Richard Kern Accused of Sodomizing Man Goes to Grand Jury
A case involving a New York City Police Officer accused of sodomizing a man during arrest will go to the grand jury within the next two weeks. Officer Richard Kern,25, is accused of sodomizing Michael Mineo with what he thinks was a radio antenna.
Both police and Mineo state that he ran to try to evade police after he was seen smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn station. He was reportedly tackled by two police officers before three more appeared before he was held down and assaulted.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne states, "His assertion that he was sodomized is not supported by independent civilian witnesses on the scene." Mineo was later taken to the hospital where he was reportedly diagnosed as being anally assaulted.
Source: wcbstv.com
Both police and Mineo state that he ran to try to evade police after he was seen smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn station. He was reportedly tackled by two police officers before three more appeared before he was held down and assaulted.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne states, "His assertion that he was sodomized is not supported by independent civilian witnesses on the scene." Mineo was later taken to the hospital where he was reportedly diagnosed as being anally assaulted.
Source: wcbstv.com
Two Officers Accused of Forcing Iraq War Veterans to Lick Urine
MADISON, Wis.
Two police officers accused of forcing two Iraq war veterans to lick what they and another officer believed was one of the men's urine claim it was the veterans' idea.
The National Guardsmen, Sgt. Anthony Anderson and Spc. Robert Schiman, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit for the June incident in the Wisconsin Dells. It names officers Wayne Thomas and Collin Jacobson as well as another officer, the chief and the city.
In a police report obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Thomas told Schiman he wouldn't get a citation, but Thomas wanted Schiman to admit he urinated in an alley.
The report says the guardsmen argued with Thomas, and Anderson put his fingers in the puddle and licked them. Schiman then bit a leaf off a weed in the puddle.
The men claim the officers forced them to do it.
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More information: http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/316399
Two police officers accused of forcing two Iraq war veterans to lick what they and another officer believed was one of the men's urine claim it was the veterans' idea.
The National Guardsmen, Sgt. Anthony Anderson and Spc. Robert Schiman, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit for the June incident in the Wisconsin Dells. It names officers Wayne Thomas and Collin Jacobson as well as another officer, the chief and the city.
In a police report obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Thomas told Schiman he wouldn't get a citation, but Thomas wanted Schiman to admit he urinated in an alley.
The report says the guardsmen argued with Thomas, and Anderson put his fingers in the puddle and licked them. Schiman then bit a leaf off a weed in the puddle.
The men claim the officers forced them to do it.
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More information: http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/316399
Bad Cops Get Desk Duty
Some monitor surveillance cameras in housing projects. Others escort prisoners to court or check in patrol cars. And some, true to the police lingo, really do sit behind a desk, shuffling papers and answering phones.
These jobs are known as desk duty, a generic phrase in the Police Department for a range of jobs to which hundreds of officers have been reassigned over the years.
Pulled off the streets, stripped of guns and badges, kept inside four walls and away — as much as possible — from the public, officers who are put on desk duty because their conduct is under investigation find themselves far from the enforcement activities they signed up to do.
“We like to call it the ‘cellblock’ because it is like you are in prison,” said an officer who spent more than 18 months watching surveillance video while authorities investigated an accusation that he had struck a suspect.
The officer, who was eventually cleared of the charge, insisted that his name not be published because he did not want his work history to be widely known.
“It is the worst place in the world if you enjoy being a police officer,” he said. “You sit at a desk and stare at 30 monitors.”
Among those on desk duty now are four officers involved in a run-in in October with a 24-year-old man, Michael Mineo, who says he was sodomized with a piece of police equipment in a Brooklyn subway station. A grand jury is investigating the case.
Those officers joined a netherworld of police work that has sometimes taken others years to emerge from as their cases went through the legal system and then Police Department review.
Levied against anyone from a rookie patrol cop to a 20-year decorated detective, the desk duty reassignment is a great equalizer. There are no assumptions of guilt or innocence or nods to rank.
And, although the colloquial term “desk duty” neatly captures the idea of an officer who is hidden from the public, it often does not involve sitting at a desk. The officers in the Mineo case are performing jobs like watching video cameras and overseeing police vehicles.
“Doing court paperwork, moving prisoners, driving delivery vehicles — it is a range of glamourless jobs,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who is a former police officer and prosecutor in New York City.
“You are unarmed most of the time and everybody knows that you are sort of disabled by the fact that you are not on full duty,” he said. “There is almost a universal stigma to it.”
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that it was a necessary tool. “Prudence and good order in a police department dictate that at times certain personnel be relieved of their enforcement duties,” he said.
Not everyone on desk duty is under a cloud; most are officers with clean records who do those jobs full time. When officers are taken off enforcement duties and given desk jobs because of pending charges, it is called modified duty.
In some cases, officers are placed on limited duty when recovering from an injury or for emotional reasons, such as in a recent case of an officer whose child died. But for the most part, those on modified assignment are in limbo, waiting to be cleared and returned to regular duty or on their way to suspension, demotion, transfer or firing if they are convicted of a crime or found to have broken department rules.
After the shooting death of Sean Bell in November 2006, six police officers were put on desk duty doing paperwork for detectives on Staten Island, making phone calls to investigators when there was a homicide in the Bronx, or performing administrative tasks at desks in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Three of the officers were criminally charged, and they were acquitted. An internal investigation and the possibility of going to trial on departmental charges is on hold until the Justice Department decides whether it will bring a civil rights case against the officers.
Police unions have accused the department of using desk duty for political reasons, such as in high-profile cases, which the department denies. Unions have also complained that it is too open-ended, with an officer sometimes desk-bound even after being cleared. Some officers say the department sometimes intentionally assigns officers to desk-duty jobs requiring a long commute, an unofficial form of punishment known as toll therapy.
John D. Patten, a lawyer, defended a sergeant, Thomas Kennedy, who was investigated after a handcuffed suspect fell and hit his head. He was acquitted in court and cleared in an internal investigation but spent a year and a half on modified duty in the Fleet Services Division. “It takes time to resolve these,” Mr. Patten said. “But sometimes it can go fast, too. There are no fixed rules.”
Mr. Browne said officers can be kept on modified duty “indefinitely. But it really depends on individual cases.”
Officers who have been on desk duty say the stigma is hard to erase in a paramilitary organization that values the solidarity that comes with wearing the same uniform and facing the same dangers.
“Modified duty is purgatory,” said Rae Koshetz, a lawyer who once worked in the Police Department handling internal trials and who represents Officer Kenneth Boss, one of four officers who fired at and killed Amadou Diallo, a Bronx man who was unarmed, in 1999.
Officer Boss was acquitted and cleared in an internal inquiry and in court but is still answering phones for the Emergency Services Unit at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. “You are benched,” Ms. Koshetz said. “Your career is derailed.”
“It is a dumping ground,” said the officer from the surveillance unit. “The connotation is that you are a screw-up.”
Lt. Michael W. Pigott, a veteran emergency services officer, gave an order on Sept. 24 to an officer in Brooklyn to fire a Taser at an emotionally disturbed man, who then fell 10 feet and suffered a fatal head injury. The Police Department said the order appeared to have violated guidelines that said Tasers should not be used when a person could fall from an elevated surface.
Soon after Lieutenant Pigott was ordered to work the desk at Fleet Services Division in Queens, which handles police vehicles, he committed suicide.
While Lieutenant Pigott wrote in a suicide note that he feared criminal prosecution, a detective who worked with him, Stephen Dillon, said he seemed hurt by the decision to put him on desk duty and take his gun. Since he was cleared in the Diallo shooting, Officer Boss has been unsuccessfully fighting in court to be restored to full duty with his weapon, saying that his colleagues have ridiculed him with the name “Kenny No-Gun.” The Police Department has refused, saying that the public would be upset if he were rearmed, and that the department would be prejudged if he were ever involved in another shooting.
“I was a very proactive patrol cop and anticrime officer,” he said. “It is demoralizing. It breaks my heart.”
These jobs are known as desk duty, a generic phrase in the Police Department for a range of jobs to which hundreds of officers have been reassigned over the years.
Pulled off the streets, stripped of guns and badges, kept inside four walls and away — as much as possible — from the public, officers who are put on desk duty because their conduct is under investigation find themselves far from the enforcement activities they signed up to do.
“We like to call it the ‘cellblock’ because it is like you are in prison,” said an officer who spent more than 18 months watching surveillance video while authorities investigated an accusation that he had struck a suspect.
The officer, who was eventually cleared of the charge, insisted that his name not be published because he did not want his work history to be widely known.
“It is the worst place in the world if you enjoy being a police officer,” he said. “You sit at a desk and stare at 30 monitors.”
Among those on desk duty now are four officers involved in a run-in in October with a 24-year-old man, Michael Mineo, who says he was sodomized with a piece of police equipment in a Brooklyn subway station. A grand jury is investigating the case.
Those officers joined a netherworld of police work that has sometimes taken others years to emerge from as their cases went through the legal system and then Police Department review.
Levied against anyone from a rookie patrol cop to a 20-year decorated detective, the desk duty reassignment is a great equalizer. There are no assumptions of guilt or innocence or nods to rank.
And, although the colloquial term “desk duty” neatly captures the idea of an officer who is hidden from the public, it often does not involve sitting at a desk. The officers in the Mineo case are performing jobs like watching video cameras and overseeing police vehicles.
“Doing court paperwork, moving prisoners, driving delivery vehicles — it is a range of glamourless jobs,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who is a former police officer and prosecutor in New York City.
“You are unarmed most of the time and everybody knows that you are sort of disabled by the fact that you are not on full duty,” he said. “There is almost a universal stigma to it.”
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that it was a necessary tool. “Prudence and good order in a police department dictate that at times certain personnel be relieved of their enforcement duties,” he said.
Not everyone on desk duty is under a cloud; most are officers with clean records who do those jobs full time. When officers are taken off enforcement duties and given desk jobs because of pending charges, it is called modified duty.
In some cases, officers are placed on limited duty when recovering from an injury or for emotional reasons, such as in a recent case of an officer whose child died. But for the most part, those on modified assignment are in limbo, waiting to be cleared and returned to regular duty or on their way to suspension, demotion, transfer or firing if they are convicted of a crime or found to have broken department rules.
After the shooting death of Sean Bell in November 2006, six police officers were put on desk duty doing paperwork for detectives on Staten Island, making phone calls to investigators when there was a homicide in the Bronx, or performing administrative tasks at desks in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Three of the officers were criminally charged, and they were acquitted. An internal investigation and the possibility of going to trial on departmental charges is on hold until the Justice Department decides whether it will bring a civil rights case against the officers.
Police unions have accused the department of using desk duty for political reasons, such as in high-profile cases, which the department denies. Unions have also complained that it is too open-ended, with an officer sometimes desk-bound even after being cleared. Some officers say the department sometimes intentionally assigns officers to desk-duty jobs requiring a long commute, an unofficial form of punishment known as toll therapy.
John D. Patten, a lawyer, defended a sergeant, Thomas Kennedy, who was investigated after a handcuffed suspect fell and hit his head. He was acquitted in court and cleared in an internal investigation but spent a year and a half on modified duty in the Fleet Services Division. “It takes time to resolve these,” Mr. Patten said. “But sometimes it can go fast, too. There are no fixed rules.”
Mr. Browne said officers can be kept on modified duty “indefinitely. But it really depends on individual cases.”
Officers who have been on desk duty say the stigma is hard to erase in a paramilitary organization that values the solidarity that comes with wearing the same uniform and facing the same dangers.
“Modified duty is purgatory,” said Rae Koshetz, a lawyer who once worked in the Police Department handling internal trials and who represents Officer Kenneth Boss, one of four officers who fired at and killed Amadou Diallo, a Bronx man who was unarmed, in 1999.
Officer Boss was acquitted and cleared in an internal inquiry and in court but is still answering phones for the Emergency Services Unit at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. “You are benched,” Ms. Koshetz said. “Your career is derailed.”
“It is a dumping ground,” said the officer from the surveillance unit. “The connotation is that you are a screw-up.”
Lt. Michael W. Pigott, a veteran emergency services officer, gave an order on Sept. 24 to an officer in Brooklyn to fire a Taser at an emotionally disturbed man, who then fell 10 feet and suffered a fatal head injury. The Police Department said the order appeared to have violated guidelines that said Tasers should not be used when a person could fall from an elevated surface.
Soon after Lieutenant Pigott was ordered to work the desk at Fleet Services Division in Queens, which handles police vehicles, he committed suicide.
While Lieutenant Pigott wrote in a suicide note that he feared criminal prosecution, a detective who worked with him, Stephen Dillon, said he seemed hurt by the decision to put him on desk duty and take his gun. Since he was cleared in the Diallo shooting, Officer Boss has been unsuccessfully fighting in court to be restored to full duty with his weapon, saying that his colleagues have ridiculed him with the name “Kenny No-Gun.” The Police Department has refused, saying that the public would be upset if he were rearmed, and that the department would be prejudged if he were ever involved in another shooting.
“I was a very proactive patrol cop and anticrime officer,” he said. “It is demoralizing. It breaks my heart.”
Officer Vinson Walker Accused of Rape
A Garfield Heights police officer faces rape charges, accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his Cleveland home Nov. 16.
The officer, Vinson Walker, was off-duty at the time, police said. Details of what may have happened remained unclear Saturday and Vinson could not be reached for comment.
Cleveland police arrested Walker Wednesday at the Garfield Heights police station. Vinson, 29, was charged Friday with raping a 22-year-old woman.
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20081130/UPDATES01/81129028
Officer Richard Heverly Accused of Holding Gun to Man's Head Returns to Work
A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy facing criminal charges for allegedly holding a gun to a man's head while off duty has returned to work at West Valley Detention Center.
Richard Heverly, of La Verne, was placed on paid administrative leave following his Aug. 10 arrest in Riverside County.
He returned to work at the jail's transportation division on Nov. 4, said sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers.
At about 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 10, tow-truck driver Roger Gilstrap saw a big-rig truck on fire on the 10 Freeway near Eagle Mountain Road, about 50 miles east of Indio.
Gilstrap positioned his truck to block off lanes affected by the burning big rig and called the California Highway Patrol from his cell phone, according to the arrest declaration in Heverly's court file.
While Gilstrap was on the phone with the CHP, Heverly, 42, pulled up beside him in a red Dodge truck.
Heverly flashed his sheriff's department badge and told Gilstrap, "This entitles me to do whatever the (expletive) I want," according to the arrest declaration, which was written by a CHP officer.
Heverly grabbed Gilstrap's cell phone and disconnected the call, then pulled Gilstrap out of the tow truck and handcuffed his right hand, bruising and injuring Gilstrap's wrist, according to the arrest declaration.
Heverly then drove the barrel of a handgun into Gilstrap's ear, and told him, "I have a gun in your ear and I will kill you," according to the arrest declaration.
Heverly twisted the gun into Gilstrap's ear, bruising and cutting the inside of Gilstrap's ear and the surrounding area, according to the arrest declaration.
Heverly then handcuffed Gilstrap's arms behind his back and led him to the passenger side of the truck. He held Gilstrap for 3 to 5 minutes, according to the arrest declaration.
Heverly never told Gilstrap the reason for handcuffing him, according to the arrest declaration. Gilstrap told officers he feared for his life during the encounter with Heverly.
Heverly has pleaded not guilty to four felony charges: assault with a semi-automatic firearm, assault by a public officer, criminal threats and false imprisonment. All four charges carry sentencing enhancements because Heverly used a gun.
San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers declined to discuss the reason that Heverly was allowed back to work at West Valley Detention Center.
Such details, Beavers said, "are never disclosed because we are not at liberty to discuss any of the findings in an administrative investigation."
Beavers said the decision to place a deputy on administrative leave is made on a case-by-case basis.
"When it is contrary to the best interests of the department for an employee to continue his regular duties, he may be assigned to special duty leave with pay at the discretion of the office of the sheriff," Beavers said.
Beavers said she wasn't aware of any restrictions placed on Heverly while he is off duty, such as restrictions on his permission to carry a gun.
Michael Schwartz, Heverly's Santa Monica-based attorney, said "there's much more to this case than the probable cause declaration."
He declined to comment on the specific allegations against Heverly.
Schwartz also represented Ivory Webb, a former San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy who was acquitted of criminal charges filed after he shot off-duty Airman Elio Carrion in Chino in 2006.
Heverly is next scheduled to appear in Indio Superior Court on Dec. 23 for a felony settlement conference. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 6.
At a preliminary hearing, the prosecution must present sufficient evidence for each charge against a defendant to be brought to trial. Preliminary hearings typically include testimony.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_11098704?nclick_check=1
Friday, November 28, 2008
Charges Against Officer William Bergin Stack Up
When former Sandy Police Officer William Bergin, 27, enters court for the first time on Dec. 11, he’ll face serious allegations from the district attorney.
Following an investigation led by the Gresham Police Department, Bergin has been indicted by a Clackamas County grand jury with felony identity theft, first-degree official misconduct and use of an invalid driver’s license, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Horner.
On Dec. 11, Bergin will either plead guilty and face sentencing for a felony charge, or plead not guilty and face the exposure of a trial in open court.
If he chooses a trial, he likely will have to answer questions about what is being described as an inappropriate relationship with two teenage girls.
He is accused of giving one of the girls confiscated driver’s licenses (identity theft) that were used to enter places where alcohol was served.
The accusations are detailed in an affidavit submitted to a Clackamas County judge to request a search warrant for Bergin’s home in Sandy. The affidavit was obtained by the Sandy Post, as authorized by the Oregon open records law.
The girls are not being identified in this news story, even though they are now 18 and 20 years old, because they were teenagers at the time of most of their relationship with Bergin.
As the detectives sort out their suspicions and what they can prove is truthful and what’s not, they are dealing with statements that link Bergin with an alleged pregnancy and subsequent abortion for one of the girls. That allegation was made public first during a separate investigation of former Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Claggett. The same two girls were involved with Claggett, according to sheriff’s detectives, who questioned them and wrote the report that was made available to the Post.
In July, Sandy Police Chief Harold Skelton consulted with City Manager Scott Lazenby and then asked Gresham police to conduct the investigation of Bergin. Skelton said that happened immediately after Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts told him that sheriff’s deputies had heard their witnesses give testimony against Bergin.
“I asked Gresham to help with this investigation,” Skelton said, “because I wanted it to be totally transparent and unbiased.”
During the internal investigation, Gresham Police Officer Donald Gibson was joined by a lieutenant, sergeant and administrative supervisor from the Gresham Police Department as well as a sergeant from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department.
That investigative quintet also relied on information supplied from the internal investigation of Claggett, who resigned after the investigation of his “official misconduct” was nearly complete.
That investigation included interviews with both girls involved in the Bergin case. They also were teen-agers at the time of Claggett’s alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with teen-age girls.
Sorting truth from half-truth became the issue during officer Gibson’s probe into Bergin’s activities.
For example, during the Gresham police investigation, the youngest girl told officer Gibson that she did not have a sexual relationship with Bergin and did not have an abortion. But a Sandy police sergeant told Gibson that it was the older girl who had told Claggett that the younger girl had the pregnancy and abortion.
The girls say Claggett made that statement to the police sergeant because he didn’t like either the girls or Bergin.
In another interview, the oldest girl allegedly told a Gresham investigator that the younger girl had “covered (Bergin’s) ass” while being questioned. She also is reported to have told the older girl to cover for him, if she is questioned.
Adding to the suspicion that something sexual was happening between the girls and the officer are statements from Bergin’s neighbors, who say the girls were frequent guests at Bergin’s home – alone with him when Bergin’s roommate was not at home.
In fact, one of the neighbors told officer Gibson he used to send text messages to Bergin’s roommate telling him whether or not it was OK to come home – depending on whether he thought something inappropriate was occurring at the residence.
In addition, during a Sept. 10 search of Bergin’s home in Sandy, photos were seized that depict the same two girls clad in bikinis sitting astride a motorcycle at night. The series of flash photos show poses in which the girl hugging the other from the back of the seat reaches around and grips the other’s bikini-clad breast, and another photo in which the girl in the front twists around to enable the two to kiss. There was no information in the affidavit that indicated who took the photos.
Skelton says he has to trust his officers to act appropriately, according to their code of ethics. But if someone is accused of something inappropriate or illegal, he says he wants to respond.
“I can’t follow my officers around 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “But if I find out that somebody has done something wrong, then I am going to take action.”
Adding to the case of official misconduct against Bergin, there also is damaging evidence of felony identity theft while assisting an underage person to enter places where alcoholic beverages are sold.
The identity theft charge stems from evidence, and the statements of two witnesses, alleging that Bergin illegally kept possession of suspended driver’s licenses, probably at least two dozen, and gave two licenses to a minor.
The oldest girl, who is still not yet 21, told investigators Bergin had perhaps 25 licenses in one of the drawers in a coffee table in his home. That was confirmed by two of Bergin’s neighbors, who saw the licenses.
The oldest girl’s step-sister, who lives in Bend, told investigators she knew about two licenses that her sister said she had received from Bergin.
One of those IDs, the girl told officer Gibson, was seized by a female bartender at a martini bar in Bend.
The same girl also told investigators in the Claggett case she had received two licenses from Bergin last spring, without asking for them, when she wanted to go to a concert in Portland that was restricted to people 21 and older.
“He’s like, well I have some IDs …,” she told the sheriff’s detective. “In his drawer in the coffee table, like I said, there’s stacks of IDs. And he’s like, well let’s match one to you … And he was like – OK. And he gave me two IDs. And he’s like, either one will work.”
The same girl also is alleged to have contacted one of the people whose license had been confiscated and told her that Bergin has a thing for young girls.
When officer Gibson questioned the woman whose license had been seized, she told him the officer took the license and told her that there would be no citation for driving while suspended and there would be no towing of her car for not having liability insurance. She said she was told that the officer would be driving away in one direction and she should drive away in the other direction.
That “thing for young girls” was confirmed in allegations from Bergin’s former roommates and neighbors, who told Gresham investigators they saw Bergin with the girls numerous times, including times when Bergin and the youngest girl would go to his room together and one time when Bergin was seen sitting on a couch next to one of the girls when both were covered by the same blanket.
But that witness also said he didn’t think there was anything intimate going on between the two.
In fact, Bergin told one of his former roommates that he has known the girls since they were children, and would never be sexually involved with them.
Bergin also may have to answer to allegations that he took the girls on ride-a-longs several times a week, which is against the department’s policy.
On Dec. 11, Judge Steven L. Mauer will hear Bergin’s plea inside a Clackamas County Circuit Court.
Following an investigation led by the Gresham Police Department, Bergin has been indicted by a Clackamas County grand jury with felony identity theft, first-degree official misconduct and use of an invalid driver’s license, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Horner.
On Dec. 11, Bergin will either plead guilty and face sentencing for a felony charge, or plead not guilty and face the exposure of a trial in open court.
If he chooses a trial, he likely will have to answer questions about what is being described as an inappropriate relationship with two teenage girls.
He is accused of giving one of the girls confiscated driver’s licenses (identity theft) that were used to enter places where alcohol was served.
The accusations are detailed in an affidavit submitted to a Clackamas County judge to request a search warrant for Bergin’s home in Sandy. The affidavit was obtained by the Sandy Post, as authorized by the Oregon open records law.
The girls are not being identified in this news story, even though they are now 18 and 20 years old, because they were teenagers at the time of most of their relationship with Bergin.
As the detectives sort out their suspicions and what they can prove is truthful and what’s not, they are dealing with statements that link Bergin with an alleged pregnancy and subsequent abortion for one of the girls. That allegation was made public first during a separate investigation of former Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Claggett. The same two girls were involved with Claggett, according to sheriff’s detectives, who questioned them and wrote the report that was made available to the Post.
In July, Sandy Police Chief Harold Skelton consulted with City Manager Scott Lazenby and then asked Gresham police to conduct the investigation of Bergin. Skelton said that happened immediately after Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts told him that sheriff’s deputies had heard their witnesses give testimony against Bergin.
“I asked Gresham to help with this investigation,” Skelton said, “because I wanted it to be totally transparent and unbiased.”
During the internal investigation, Gresham Police Officer Donald Gibson was joined by a lieutenant, sergeant and administrative supervisor from the Gresham Police Department as well as a sergeant from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department.
That investigative quintet also relied on information supplied from the internal investigation of Claggett, who resigned after the investigation of his “official misconduct” was nearly complete.
That investigation included interviews with both girls involved in the Bergin case. They also were teen-agers at the time of Claggett’s alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with teen-age girls.
Sorting truth from half-truth became the issue during officer Gibson’s probe into Bergin’s activities.
For example, during the Gresham police investigation, the youngest girl told officer Gibson that she did not have a sexual relationship with Bergin and did not have an abortion. But a Sandy police sergeant told Gibson that it was the older girl who had told Claggett that the younger girl had the pregnancy and abortion.
The girls say Claggett made that statement to the police sergeant because he didn’t like either the girls or Bergin.
In another interview, the oldest girl allegedly told a Gresham investigator that the younger girl had “covered (Bergin’s) ass” while being questioned. She also is reported to have told the older girl to cover for him, if she is questioned.
Adding to the suspicion that something sexual was happening between the girls and the officer are statements from Bergin’s neighbors, who say the girls were frequent guests at Bergin’s home – alone with him when Bergin’s roommate was not at home.
In fact, one of the neighbors told officer Gibson he used to send text messages to Bergin’s roommate telling him whether or not it was OK to come home – depending on whether he thought something inappropriate was occurring at the residence.
In addition, during a Sept. 10 search of Bergin’s home in Sandy, photos were seized that depict the same two girls clad in bikinis sitting astride a motorcycle at night. The series of flash photos show poses in which the girl hugging the other from the back of the seat reaches around and grips the other’s bikini-clad breast, and another photo in which the girl in the front twists around to enable the two to kiss. There was no information in the affidavit that indicated who took the photos.
Skelton says he has to trust his officers to act appropriately, according to their code of ethics. But if someone is accused of something inappropriate or illegal, he says he wants to respond.
“I can’t follow my officers around 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “But if I find out that somebody has done something wrong, then I am going to take action.”
Adding to the case of official misconduct against Bergin, there also is damaging evidence of felony identity theft while assisting an underage person to enter places where alcoholic beverages are sold.
The identity theft charge stems from evidence, and the statements of two witnesses, alleging that Bergin illegally kept possession of suspended driver’s licenses, probably at least two dozen, and gave two licenses to a minor.
The oldest girl, who is still not yet 21, told investigators Bergin had perhaps 25 licenses in one of the drawers in a coffee table in his home. That was confirmed by two of Bergin’s neighbors, who saw the licenses.
The oldest girl’s step-sister, who lives in Bend, told investigators she knew about two licenses that her sister said she had received from Bergin.
One of those IDs, the girl told officer Gibson, was seized by a female bartender at a martini bar in Bend.
The same girl also told investigators in the Claggett case she had received two licenses from Bergin last spring, without asking for them, when she wanted to go to a concert in Portland that was restricted to people 21 and older.
“He’s like, well I have some IDs …,” she told the sheriff’s detective. “In his drawer in the coffee table, like I said, there’s stacks of IDs. And he’s like, well let’s match one to you … And he was like – OK. And he gave me two IDs. And he’s like, either one will work.”
The same girl also is alleged to have contacted one of the people whose license had been confiscated and told her that Bergin has a thing for young girls.
When officer Gibson questioned the woman whose license had been seized, she told him the officer took the license and told her that there would be no citation for driving while suspended and there would be no towing of her car for not having liability insurance. She said she was told that the officer would be driving away in one direction and she should drive away in the other direction.
That “thing for young girls” was confirmed in allegations from Bergin’s former roommates and neighbors, who told Gresham investigators they saw Bergin with the girls numerous times, including times when Bergin and the youngest girl would go to his room together and one time when Bergin was seen sitting on a couch next to one of the girls when both were covered by the same blanket.
But that witness also said he didn’t think there was anything intimate going on between the two.
In fact, Bergin told one of his former roommates that he has known the girls since they were children, and would never be sexually involved with them.
Bergin also may have to answer to allegations that he took the girls on ride-a-longs several times a week, which is against the department’s policy.
On Dec. 11, Judge Steven L. Mauer will hear Bergin’s plea inside a Clackamas County Circuit Court.
Sheriff Ricky Headly Pleads Guilty to 4 Counts of Possession
The one hundred and sixty thousand residents of Williamson County breathed a giant sigh of relief on September 1 of this year when Jeff Long was sworn in as the new Sheriff of Williamson County. Long's assumption of the office ended a two year long odyssey of scandal, disgrace, and tragedy that can only be described as a Shakespearean Film Noir set to Country Music.
In January of 2007,then Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley, the self proclaimed "Singing Sheriff", was arrested by the Nashville police on a series of prescription drug felony charges. Turns out the good sheriff, when not arresting criminals in Williamson County, was allegedly committing a few crimes of his own. The most that can be said of Headley is that he had at least enough sense to commit these crimes in adjacent Davidson County.
Regrettably, Headley did not have enough common sense, shame, or grace to resign his office immediately. Instead, he abused his position of authority for over a year, in hopes of escaping the kind of justice that average citizens receive when they commit such crimes.
With felony charges hanging over his head, Sheriff Headley continued to run the Sheriff's office in Williamson County, making most residents of Williamson County squirm every time they saw a Sheriff's car go by. "What kind of place is this," we wondered, "if an alleged felony crook is directing the activities of law enforcement officers who have the authority to arrest law abiding citizens?"
On October 12, 2007, Sheriff Headley was indicted on numerous felony counts by a Davidson County grand jury. According to a press release issued by the Metropolitan Davidson County Police Department on that day, Headley was indicted on
"17 counts of Unlawful Distribution of a Controlled Substance, Class D felonies, 12 counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, Class A misdemeanors, 3 counts of Unlawful Distribution of Legend Drugs, Class C misdemeanors, and 1 count of Possession of a Legend Drug without a Prescription, a Class C misdemeanor. The charges stem from a two-year investigation into Brooks Pharmacy, 4701 Trousdale Drive, which resulted in Headley being arrested for illegally obtaining nearly 2,000 doses of the prescription drugs Hydrocodone, Soma, and Cataflam between October 2006 and January of 2007. Headley was arrested January 31, 2007. The matter was sent for grand jury consideration after a preliminary hearing in April. Headley's $7,000 bond is unchanged from his January arrest. It is expected that Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier will arraign Headley in the coming weeks on the Davidson County indictment. A Williamson County grand jury indicted Headley earlier this week on four counts of Official Misconduct."
Angling for special treatment, Headley stubbornly held onto his job as Sheriff, causing further embarassment to the residents of the county.
It wasn't until February 14, 2008 that Headley resigned, having cut a sweet plea deal that let him off the hook, serving no jail time in return for his decision to resign.
As the Nashville City Paper described the resignation the next day :
" Embattled Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley resigned his post yesterday after he accepted a plea deal that will keep him out of jail on drug charges.The Williamson County District Attorney's office, in conjunction with Davidson County's DA, agreed to offer the sheriff a suspended five-year sentence -- three years supervised probation, two years unsupervised -- with the agreement that he would enter a drug and alcohol treatment program and not run for any public office.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Metro Police arrested Headley over a year ago following a two-year drug sting operation. He was faced with felony charges of prescription drug fraud, which were dropped by the Davidson County DA's office as part of yesterday's plea deal.Headley, 44, would not comment following the hearing in a Williamson County Court, rather he referred questions to his attorney David Raybin.
"Everybody agreed that this was the thing to do and it also seemed reasonable to bring closure to this terrible personal tragedy for this man and his family," Raybin said. Raybin painted the sheriff as a man afflicted with addiction to painkillers following a back injury that led to his subsequent arrest Jan. 31, 2007, on charges he bought the drugs without a prescription in Nashville.
"The medication was originally prescribed by physicians," Raybin said. "He became addicted to the pain medication like many other people do in our state."
Attorneys in Davidson and Williamson counties said getting Headley out of office was their top priority in contemplating this plea deal. "The objective of [the DA] was to see to it that this runaway train comes to a screeching halt," said Derek Smith, Williamson County Deputy District Attorney. "We had to remove the sheriff from office. People in the county, I think, are embarrassed by the situation, and we had to respond to that."
Attorneys confirmed that Headley was not, in fact, selling the medication he had obtained from the pharmacy. Subsequently, the sheriff pleaded guilty yesterday to four counts of simple possession in Davidson County and one count of conspiracy to commit official misconduct in Williamson County."
By law and tradition, local county races in Tennessee are "non-partisan", but it took the concerted efforts of the local Republican Party and local Republican leaders to find and back a qualified candidate to replace the disgraced incumbent.
That candidate was Jeff Long, an attorney and former agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A special election was set for August of 2008, and half a dozen other candidates jumped in.
Towards the end of the campaign, disgraced Sheriff Headley, who apparently doesn't have enough sense to realize he's worn out his welcome in Middle Tennessee, released a Gospel album, which he claimed was designed to help others who found themselves addicted to painkillers. Surprisingly, sales of the album were flat.
Jeff Long won the August 2008 election with about 60% of the vote, a veritable landslide given the number of other candidates, and he was sworn in as sheriff on September 1, 2008.
The Shakespearean element of the story continued, however. Although Long has done an excellent job righting the Williamson County Sheriff's offices since then, the same cannot be said for former Sheriff Headley. In September of this year, Headley's son, an employee of the Sheriff's Department assigned as a resource officer at a local middle school, committed suicide, apparently a consequence of a domestic dispute with his girlfriend.
There's a country song to be written about this tragic tale of woe. I don't really know if anyone would be interested in hearing it, though. Some things are best left forgotten, memories to be buried deep in one's soul.
In January of 2007,then Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley, the self proclaimed "Singing Sheriff", was arrested by the Nashville police on a series of prescription drug felony charges. Turns out the good sheriff, when not arresting criminals in Williamson County, was allegedly committing a few crimes of his own. The most that can be said of Headley is that he had at least enough sense to commit these crimes in adjacent Davidson County.
Regrettably, Headley did not have enough common sense, shame, or grace to resign his office immediately. Instead, he abused his position of authority for over a year, in hopes of escaping the kind of justice that average citizens receive when they commit such crimes.
With felony charges hanging over his head, Sheriff Headley continued to run the Sheriff's office in Williamson County, making most residents of Williamson County squirm every time they saw a Sheriff's car go by. "What kind of place is this," we wondered, "if an alleged felony crook is directing the activities of law enforcement officers who have the authority to arrest law abiding citizens?"
On October 12, 2007, Sheriff Headley was indicted on numerous felony counts by a Davidson County grand jury. According to a press release issued by the Metropolitan Davidson County Police Department on that day, Headley was indicted on
"17 counts of Unlawful Distribution of a Controlled Substance, Class D felonies, 12 counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, Class A misdemeanors, 3 counts of Unlawful Distribution of Legend Drugs, Class C misdemeanors, and 1 count of Possession of a Legend Drug without a Prescription, a Class C misdemeanor. The charges stem from a two-year investigation into Brooks Pharmacy, 4701 Trousdale Drive, which resulted in Headley being arrested for illegally obtaining nearly 2,000 doses of the prescription drugs Hydrocodone, Soma, and Cataflam between October 2006 and January of 2007. Headley was arrested January 31, 2007. The matter was sent for grand jury consideration after a preliminary hearing in April. Headley's $7,000 bond is unchanged from his January arrest. It is expected that Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier will arraign Headley in the coming weeks on the Davidson County indictment. A Williamson County grand jury indicted Headley earlier this week on four counts of Official Misconduct."
Angling for special treatment, Headley stubbornly held onto his job as Sheriff, causing further embarassment to the residents of the county.
It wasn't until February 14, 2008 that Headley resigned, having cut a sweet plea deal that let him off the hook, serving no jail time in return for his decision to resign.
As the Nashville City Paper described the resignation the next day :
" Embattled Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley resigned his post yesterday after he accepted a plea deal that will keep him out of jail on drug charges.The Williamson County District Attorney's office, in conjunction with Davidson County's DA, agreed to offer the sheriff a suspended five-year sentence -- three years supervised probation, two years unsupervised -- with the agreement that he would enter a drug and alcohol treatment program and not run for any public office.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Metro Police arrested Headley over a year ago following a two-year drug sting operation. He was faced with felony charges of prescription drug fraud, which were dropped by the Davidson County DA's office as part of yesterday's plea deal.Headley, 44, would not comment following the hearing in a Williamson County Court, rather he referred questions to his attorney David Raybin.
"Everybody agreed that this was the thing to do and it also seemed reasonable to bring closure to this terrible personal tragedy for this man and his family," Raybin said. Raybin painted the sheriff as a man afflicted with addiction to painkillers following a back injury that led to his subsequent arrest Jan. 31, 2007, on charges he bought the drugs without a prescription in Nashville.
"The medication was originally prescribed by physicians," Raybin said. "He became addicted to the pain medication like many other people do in our state."
Attorneys in Davidson and Williamson counties said getting Headley out of office was their top priority in contemplating this plea deal. "The objective of [the DA] was to see to it that this runaway train comes to a screeching halt," said Derek Smith, Williamson County Deputy District Attorney. "We had to remove the sheriff from office. People in the county, I think, are embarrassed by the situation, and we had to respond to that."
Attorneys confirmed that Headley was not, in fact, selling the medication he had obtained from the pharmacy. Subsequently, the sheriff pleaded guilty yesterday to four counts of simple possession in Davidson County and one count of conspiracy to commit official misconduct in Williamson County."
By law and tradition, local county races in Tennessee are "non-partisan", but it took the concerted efforts of the local Republican Party and local Republican leaders to find and back a qualified candidate to replace the disgraced incumbent.
That candidate was Jeff Long, an attorney and former agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A special election was set for August of 2008, and half a dozen other candidates jumped in.
Towards the end of the campaign, disgraced Sheriff Headley, who apparently doesn't have enough sense to realize he's worn out his welcome in Middle Tennessee, released a Gospel album, which he claimed was designed to help others who found themselves addicted to painkillers. Surprisingly, sales of the album were flat.
Jeff Long won the August 2008 election with about 60% of the vote, a veritable landslide given the number of other candidates, and he was sworn in as sheriff on September 1, 2008.
The Shakespearean element of the story continued, however. Although Long has done an excellent job righting the Williamson County Sheriff's offices since then, the same cannot be said for former Sheriff Headley. In September of this year, Headley's son, an employee of the Sheriff's Department assigned as a resource officer at a local middle school, committed suicide, apparently a consequence of a domestic dispute with his girlfriend.
There's a country song to be written about this tragic tale of woe. I don't really know if anyone would be interested in hearing it, though. Some things are best left forgotten, memories to be buried deep in one's soul.
Deputy Who Killed Man is Now Accused of DUI
A Twin Cities Sheriff's deputy who killed a man with his squad car is accused of breaking the law again.
On Aug. 30, 2007, Dakota County Sheriff's Deputy Joshua Williams pulled his squad out in front of motorcyclist Bill Wallace, hitting and killing him on Highway 3 in Empire Township.
On Saturday, he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and having an open bottle of beer in his car .
A fellow deputy clocked him doing 68 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone shortly before 2 a.m. on County Road 46 in Empire Township, just minutes away from where he hit Wallace's motorcycle 15 months earlier. Authorities said Williams failed both a field sobriety and breath test, was arrested at the scene, and his car was impounded.
Williams was booked in the Dakota County Jail and placed in general population until his release several hours later. Williams has worked for Dakota county since Aug. 2000. After his careless driving conviction May 13, 2008, he was prohibited from driving county vehicles and re-assigned to court security as a bailiff.
Wallace's family wants to know why he was allowed to drive at all.
"He could have taken another life," step-brother Joe Geror said.
Williams was suppose to have his license suspended for one year, but state records show it was reinstated Oct. 7, 2008--five months after his conviction.
The Wallace family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dakota County. The attorney for Williams declined to comment, since no charges have been filed.
Dakota County Chief Deputy Dave Bellows said Williams is on paid leave and told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the incident "makes us angry."
If convicted, this would be William's second DWI in under 10 years. He already has a DWI conviction in North Carolina from December 1998.
On Aug. 30, 2007, Dakota County Sheriff's Deputy Joshua Williams pulled his squad out in front of motorcyclist Bill Wallace, hitting and killing him on Highway 3 in Empire Township.
On Saturday, he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and having an open bottle of beer in his car .
A fellow deputy clocked him doing 68 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone shortly before 2 a.m. on County Road 46 in Empire Township, just minutes away from where he hit Wallace's motorcycle 15 months earlier. Authorities said Williams failed both a field sobriety and breath test, was arrested at the scene, and his car was impounded.
Williams was booked in the Dakota County Jail and placed in general population until his release several hours later. Williams has worked for Dakota county since Aug. 2000. After his careless driving conviction May 13, 2008, he was prohibited from driving county vehicles and re-assigned to court security as a bailiff.
Wallace's family wants to know why he was allowed to drive at all.
"He could have taken another life," step-brother Joe Geror said.
Williams was suppose to have his license suspended for one year, but state records show it was reinstated Oct. 7, 2008--five months after his conviction.
The Wallace family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dakota County. The attorney for Williams declined to comment, since no charges have been filed.
Dakota County Chief Deputy Dave Bellows said Williams is on paid leave and told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the incident "makes us angry."
If convicted, this would be William's second DWI in under 10 years. He already has a DWI conviction in North Carolina from December 1998.
Former Officer Bridges McRae Pleads Not Guilty
A former Memphis police officer pleaded not guilty Nov. 19 to civil rights charges in the jailhouse beating of a transgender prostitution suspect that was captured on video.
An indictment unsealed Nov. 19 accuses Bridges McRae, 28, of using unreasonable force by repeatedly striking Duanna Johnson with his fist and handcuffs in the intake area of the Shelby County Jail in February. Johnson, a biological male who lived as a woman, was being booked on a prostitution charge when the incident happened. A video of the beating was broadcast on Memphis television stations, leading to McRae’s firing.
McRae pleaded not guilty at a brief hearing on Wednesday before a federal magistrate and was released without bond. No trial date was set. He is charged with violating Johnson’s civil rights while in a position of authority, an offense that carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Johnson was found murdered earlier this month.
An indictment unsealed Nov. 19 accuses Bridges McRae, 28, of using unreasonable force by repeatedly striking Duanna Johnson with his fist and handcuffs in the intake area of the Shelby County Jail in February. Johnson, a biological male who lived as a woman, was being booked on a prostitution charge when the incident happened. A video of the beating was broadcast on Memphis television stations, leading to McRae’s firing.
McRae pleaded not guilty at a brief hearing on Wednesday before a federal magistrate and was released without bond. No trial date was set. He is charged with violating Johnson’s civil rights while in a position of authority, an offense that carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Johnson was found murdered earlier this month.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Constable Jason Ross Gets 6 months for Punching Another Officer
Peel Police Constable Jason Ross has received a six-month jail sentence in connection with punching another officer in the nose after being stopped for suspected drunk driving.
Ross pleaded guilty earlier this week to aggravated assault, impaired driving and mischief.
He received six months for the assault and seven days for his impaired conviction.
He was also placed on probation for two years.
The Georgetown officer was Tasered when he began brawling with fellow officers after being stopped in north Mississauga in the early hours of Sept. 12.
He was off-duty at the time and remains suspended without pay and is also expected to face discipline under the Police Act from Peel's Professional Standards bureau.
He had been charged with three counts of assaulting police, one count of assault causing bodily harm, excess blood alcohol, impaired operation of a motor vehicle and mischief.
In the incident, Ross was driving when he was stopped by police about 3:40 a.m. in the area of Winston Churchill Blvd. and Derry Rd. in Mississauga.
At the time, Ross, an eight-year veteran, was already under suspension in connection with an unrelated assault charge.
Police revealed that officers had to use a Taser to subdue Ross after he fought with his fellow officers, including breaking the nose of one of them.
Last year, he was one of 24 officers disciplined as part of an internal affairs investigation into an off-duty beer party held behind a Mississauga furniture store.
Ross pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act and was ordered to work seven days without pay following a disciplinary hearing.
He admitted consuming alcohol in a public place while off-duty in the early morning hours of Aug. 28, 2006 and failed to follow proper procedures when detaining and questioning two men – Mississauga residents Richard Cimpoesu, 24, and Orlando Canizalez, 20.
The claimed they were chased and beaten after police caught them videotaping their boozing.
Canizalez and Cimpoesu later filed a $12-million lawsuit against Peel police.
Ross pleaded guilty earlier this week to aggravated assault, impaired driving and mischief.
He received six months for the assault and seven days for his impaired conviction.
He was also placed on probation for two years.
The Georgetown officer was Tasered when he began brawling with fellow officers after being stopped in north Mississauga in the early hours of Sept. 12.
He was off-duty at the time and remains suspended without pay and is also expected to face discipline under the Police Act from Peel's Professional Standards bureau.
He had been charged with three counts of assaulting police, one count of assault causing bodily harm, excess blood alcohol, impaired operation of a motor vehicle and mischief.
In the incident, Ross was driving when he was stopped by police about 3:40 a.m. in the area of Winston Churchill Blvd. and Derry Rd. in Mississauga.
At the time, Ross, an eight-year veteran, was already under suspension in connection with an unrelated assault charge.
Police revealed that officers had to use a Taser to subdue Ross after he fought with his fellow officers, including breaking the nose of one of them.
Last year, he was one of 24 officers disciplined as part of an internal affairs investigation into an off-duty beer party held behind a Mississauga furniture store.
Ross pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act and was ordered to work seven days without pay following a disciplinary hearing.
He admitted consuming alcohol in a public place while off-duty in the early morning hours of Aug. 28, 2006 and failed to follow proper procedures when detaining and questioning two men – Mississauga residents Richard Cimpoesu, 24, and Orlando Canizalez, 20.
The claimed they were chased and beaten after police caught them videotaping their boozing.
Canizalez and Cimpoesu later filed a $12-million lawsuit against Peel police.
Sgt. Arthur Anderson Charged with Drunk Driving
MUSCATINE, Iowa
A police sergeant facing a charge of operating while intoxicated was fired Friday from the Muscatine Police Department.
However, city officials say the termination wasn’t specifically related to the incident.
On Nov. 8, another officer from the department arrested Arthur Anderson, 40, for allegedly driving his private vehicle to the Public Safety Building around 6:30 a.m.
He registered a 0.092 blood-alcohol level, according to court documents. The legal limit in Iowa is 0.08.
Stephanie Romagnoli, the city’s human resources manager, confirmed Monday that Anderson’s employment was terminated after about 17 years with the department.
“It was not specifically related to the arrest itself,” Romagnoli said. “It had to do with other personnel matters and a review of his file.”
Anderson was demoted in June from a lieutenant to a sergeant. Police Chief Gary Coderoni said the cause for the demotion was a personnel matter and that Iowa Code prevented him from discussing it further.
He said the department conducted an internal professional standards investigation of the alleged operating while intoxicated incident to determine if Anderson had violated city or department procedures.
The investigation is separate from the criminal court case, which will be prosecuted by the Johnson County Attorney’s Office.
Assistant Muscatine County Attorney Dana Christiansen said in a motion that Johnson County’s assistance was enlisted because a conflict of interest existed due to because Anderson’s employment with the police department.
A message seeking comment from Anderson was not returned by press time this morning.
He made his initial court appearance Friday in Muscatine County District Court. A judge continued his release from jail on his own recognizance, and ordered Anderson to schedule a substance abuse evaluation within five days.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 11.
Coderoni said the department has not started the process of choosing a replacement for Anderson.
A police sergeant facing a charge of operating while intoxicated was fired Friday from the Muscatine Police Department.
However, city officials say the termination wasn’t specifically related to the incident.
On Nov. 8, another officer from the department arrested Arthur Anderson, 40, for allegedly driving his private vehicle to the Public Safety Building around 6:30 a.m.
He registered a 0.092 blood-alcohol level, according to court documents. The legal limit in Iowa is 0.08.
Stephanie Romagnoli, the city’s human resources manager, confirmed Monday that Anderson’s employment was terminated after about 17 years with the department.
“It was not specifically related to the arrest itself,” Romagnoli said. “It had to do with other personnel matters and a review of his file.”
Anderson was demoted in June from a lieutenant to a sergeant. Police Chief Gary Coderoni said the cause for the demotion was a personnel matter and that Iowa Code prevented him from discussing it further.
He said the department conducted an internal professional standards investigation of the alleged operating while intoxicated incident to determine if Anderson had violated city or department procedures.
The investigation is separate from the criminal court case, which will be prosecuted by the Johnson County Attorney’s Office.
Assistant Muscatine County Attorney Dana Christiansen said in a motion that Johnson County’s assistance was enlisted because a conflict of interest existed due to because Anderson’s employment with the police department.
A message seeking comment from Anderson was not returned by press time this morning.
He made his initial court appearance Friday in Muscatine County District Court. A judge continued his release from jail on his own recognizance, and ordered Anderson to schedule a substance abuse evaluation within five days.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 11.
Coderoni said the department has not started the process of choosing a replacement for Anderson.
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